America's Electric Utilities

America's Electric Utilities PDF Author: Leonard S. Hyman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric utilities
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description

America's Electric Utilities

America's Electric Utilities PDF Author: Leonard S. Hyman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric utilities
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description


America's Electric Utilities

America's Electric Utilities PDF Author: Leonard S. Hyman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780910325837
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Wired for Greed

Wired for Greed PDF Author: Joe Seeber
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 059535744X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
Most Americans still do not understand electric utilities, and many consumers have only a vague grasp of the intricacies of regulation and deregulation. This is a paradox of sorts; regulation, in particular, seems easy enough to grasp. The real difficulty lies in understanding how power companies have manipulated the regulators. If you think utility deregulation has done away with electric utility monopolies, think again! Deregulation is a myth-it's business as usual for the power companies. For most of America, utility deregulation has yet to become a reality. Even if it does, electric companies will still swindle those they serve. Why? One reason: deregulation allows the utility giants to retain control of the transmission and distribution of electricity. Utility cheating has gone unchecked for more than a century. Author Joe Seeber has caught the electric companies red-handed, from fudged financials and courtroom trickery to meter manipulation and outright fraud. He paints a compelling portrait of an industry wired for greed-and argues that it's time someone pulled the plug.

Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility Industry

Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility Industry PDF Author: Richard F. Hirsh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521524711
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This book illuminates the role of technological stagnation in the decline of the American electric utility industry in the late 1960s and 1970s. Unlike other interpreters of the industry's woes, Professor Hirsh argues that a long and successful history of managing a conventional technology set the stage for the industry's deterioration. After improving steadily for decades, the technology that brought unequalled productivity growth to the industry appeared to stall in the late 1960s, making it impossible to mitigate the economic and regulatory assaults of the 1970s. Unfortunately, most managers did not recognize (or did not want to believe) the severity of the technological problems they faced, and they chose to focus instead on issues (usually financial or public relations) that appeared more manageable. Partly as a result of this lack of attention to technological issues, the industry found itself in the 1980s challenged by the prospects of deregulation and restructuring.

America's Electric Utilities

America's Electric Utilities PDF Author: Scott Fenn
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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California Burning

California Burning PDF Author: Katherine Blunt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593330668
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
A revelatory, urgent narrative with national implications, exploring the decline of California’s largest utility company that led to countless wildfires — including the one that destroyed the town of Paradise – and the human cost of infrastructure failure Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure. As PG&E prioritized profits and politics, power lines went unchecked—until a rusted hook purchased for 56 cents in 1921 split in two, sparking the deadliest wildfire in California history. Beginning with PG&E’s public reckoning after the Paradise fire, Blunt chronicles the evolution of PG&E’s shareholder base, from innovators who built some of California's first long-distance power lines to aggressive investors keen on reaping dividends. Following key players through pivotal decisions and legal battles, California Burning reveals the forces that shaped the plight of PG&E: deregulation and market-gaming led by Enron Corp., an unyielding push for renewable energy, and a swift increase in wildfire risk throughout the West, while regulators and lawmakers pushed their own agendas. California Burning is a deeply reported, character-driven narrative, the story of a disaster expanding into a much bigger exploration of accountability. It’s an American tragedy that serves as a cautionary tale for utilities across the nation—especially as climate change makes aging infrastructure more vulnerable, with potentially fatal consequences.

Statistics of Electric Utilities in the United States ...

Statistics of Electric Utilities in the United States ... PDF Author: United States. Federal Power Commission
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric industries
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Power Loss

Power Loss PDF Author: Richard F. Hirsh
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0262582198
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the late 1990s, the formerly staid and monopolistic electric utility industry entered an era of freewheeling competition and deregulation, allowing American consumers to buy electricity from any company offering it. In this book, Richard F. Hirsh explains how and why this radical restructuring has occurred. Hirsh starts by describing the successful campaign waged by utility managers in the first decade of the twentieth century to protect their industry from competition. The regulated system that emerged had the unanticipated consequence of endowing utility managers with great political and economic power. Seven decades later, a series of largely unanticipated events, including technological stagnation in traditional generating equipment, the 1973 energy crisis, and the rise of the environmental movement, undermined the managers' control of the system. New players, such as academics, environmental advocates, politicians, and potential competitors, wrested control from power company managers by challenging utilities' standing as "natural monopolies" and by questioning whether their firms provided universal benefits. In other words, the once-closed system came under increasing pressure to transform itself. Hirsh follows the flow of power as this transformation occurred. He also examines the relationship between technological change and regulation, showing how innovations such as cogeneration and renewable energy technologies stimulated questions about the value of government oversight of the system. And he shows how the increasing prominence of ideas such as conservation, energy efficiency, and free markets helped propel the system toward open competition. Though the new electric utility system is still in its infancy, Hirsh's perceptive account of its birth will help readers think more rationally about its future.

All-Electric America

All-Electric America PDF Author: S Freeman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780996174725
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Authors Freeman, former utility CEO, and Parks, an electricity industry journalist, explain how making the transition to an all-electric, all renewable society by 2050 is practical and achievable. An energy infrastructure powered by the sun and wind & running on electricity, for all our energy needs, will be reliable, cleaner, safer, and CHEAPER.

Modernizing America's Electricity Infrastructure

Modernizing America's Electricity Infrastructure PDF Author: Mason Willrich
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262342413
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
A comprehensive, coherent strategy for modernizing America's electricity infrastructure while ensuring affordable, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable electricity services. America's aging electricity infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly even as the need for highly reliable electric service—driven by the explosion of digital technology—continues to rise. Largely missing from national discussions, however, is a coherent, comprehensive national strategy for modernizing this critical infrastructure. Energy expert Mason Willrich presents just such a strategy in this book, connecting the dots across electric utilities, independent suppliers, government bureaucracies, political jurisdictions, and academic disciplines. He explains the need for a coherent approach, offers a framework for analyzing policy options, and proposes a step-by-step strategy for modernizing electrical infrastructure, end-to-end, in a way that ensures the delivery of affordable, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable electricity services. Willrich argues that an effective electrical infrastructure modernization strategy must incorporate flexibility, adaptability, and the capacity to coordinate policies at local, state, and federal levels. He reviews the history of America's electrification, from Edison's demonstration of the incandescent light bulb through the recent expansion of wind, solar, and energy efficiency as carbon-free energy resources. He describes the current ownership and operation of the electric industry and the complicated web of federal and state policies that govern it.